[OM] Re: RAW

[AG Schnozz]

> On the other hand C1 is a very capable software, the workflow
> is unbeatable, 
> I have been using it for two years. Adding some contrast and
> colour 
> saturation to C1 will make the image more dynamic and not as
> dull. But now 
> with the Olympus RAW I will use C1 only when I need to process
> a lots of 
> image at a short time or to save some highlight blow-out
> image.

This is interesting. I'm rather liking the Olympus RAW converter
for the overall quality of the images. My only beef remains with
the WB bias in both the E-1 and the RAW converter. I've got to
adjust the blue gamma on my pictures to get the fleshtones right
where I want them.

I've been experimenting around with the RAW conversion in
VueScan. Common wisdom is that VueScan uses the DCRAW engine. I
would believe it, since the same rasping artifacts in a DCRAW
conversion are present in the VueScan conversion. Does
VueScan/DCRAW create a "sharper" conversion than Olympus' RAW
converter?  Yes. Is it noisier?  Yes, and the noise is a pattern
noise which looks like the debayer algorithm is merging the data
one pixel position off.  A quick pass through a noise removal
program (I use Noiseware with very low settings) helps.

How about latitude?  The VueScan conversion gives me about 1/2
stop more usable latitude on the high end. The low end is
cleaner with Olympus' converter.  I'm experimenting with a
hybrid approach where I do a conversion with both the VueScan
and Olympus converters and merge them together in layers. One
trick is to take the VueScan conversion--kept in linear and
merge it on top of the Olympus conversion in a "darken only"
mode. This way, the VueScan layer only fills in the highlight
areas and doesn't affect the mids and shadows.

AG

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